Magical Ghost Go Princess Akari
by Catwho
Summary: It's Hikaru no Go with a little mahou shoujo twist. Sai returns . . . making Akari's life suddenly a lot more complicated than it had been before. To be resumed...
1. Prologue

---------------------------------  
  
Magical Ghost Go Princess Akari   
  
---------------------------------  
  
Version 1.1  
  
---------------------------------  
  
Edits: A few typos fixed. Some wording changed to be more consistant with later volumes (namely, that Akari was going to start a go club at her high school.) Akari's injury was changed to a broken ankle, based on suggestions from guys in the Anime and Manga Fanfics Forum. Formatting changed to fit FF's strange new style.  
  
---------------------------------  
  
Disclaimer  
  
---------------------------------  
  
Hikaru no Go belongs to Hotta Yumi and Obata Takeshi. Not me. Thank you, Viz, for releasing it in English! (pats her copy of Volume 1 in English, which is sitting next to volumes 17-23 in Japanese.)  
  
---------------------------------  
  
Prologue: Disaster Strikes   
  
---------------------------------  
  
On a blackened page, like the inky spill of water on a moonless night, the darkness ripples as a voice speaks softly, sound in a paper world.   
  
"Can you see me? Can you hear my voice?"   
  
---------------------------------  
  
"Ahhh, what a lovely day this turned out to be!" Fujisaki Akari said with a wide grin and stretch as she walked down the sidewalk, wearing her brand-new high school uniform for the first time. Beside her, a few of the other girls in her neighborhood who were also going to the high school had already started exchanging names and class assignments. Her hair was up in its usual jaunty high pigtails, and she liked the fact that her dark green uniform contrasted with it much better better than the old mud brown junior high one had. Her eyes were clear, her face fresh. She'd always loved the first day of school.  
  
"Ne, Akari, what does it feel like to you to be in tenth grade?" one of her friends from junior high asked.   
  
"It feels . . . free," she replied, and smiled. The warm sunshine of the spring day beamed down on them. A few late cherry blossoms drifted on the wind down the residential district road. "I can feel a whole forest of paths opening up before me, and I can follow whichever path I choose."   
  
The other girls giggled. "I want to follow the path of a housewife," one said. "No work, and a gorgeous husband!"   
  
"You should have more ambition," another said with a snort. "I'M going to be a lawyer when I grow up. I'm joining the debate club."   
  
"Ewwww, you'll have no social life! You'll have to study your brains out!"   
  
"I think I want to join the drama club," Akari said, surprising herself. "Our high school doesn't have a go club, and I want to start one, but I also think I need a new activity." Her soft penny loafers scraped against the sidewalk as she daydreamed. It would be a start. She couldn't name precisely what she wanted to do with her life . . . but joining something other than a go club was definitely a good start.  
  
"Oh, Akari, you'd be so good at drama! You're always so . . . dramatic!"   
  
More giggling. Akari joined in, letting the warm sun wash away all her small, natural apprehensions about the first day away into the gutters, where they belonged. Junior high, for all the fun it was, had ended, and she'd walk in the sunshine of a fresh start instead of in the shadows of the go club . . . and her overachiever sister.   
  
I'm free, she repeated to herself. We all are. The paths are opening up before us. Hikaru has already started down his own path, but the path that I will walk is different. My own path. Perhaps it will intersect his again . . . perhaps not. Then again, I really hope it does.   
  
Akari sighed a dreamy little sigh. Only those at the go parlor had ever guessed about her crush on Hikaru, and even then she'd begged them to never tell him. Her love was a secret she cherished. No one else needed to ever know, least of all Hikaru. She could continue to support him from her own path, walking beside him instead of behind him and the others. The way before her was clear.   
  
"Akari, watch out!"   
  
The warning came too late as Akari, lost in her little fantasy dreamland of paths and Hikaru happily-ever-afters, stepped off the curb and felt no solid ground underneath her feet. She wobbled for a few moments, actually pin-wheeling her arms for balance, before gravity won the battle and she found herself rushing to the pavement face first. She felt her ankle snap from the pressure of a sixteen year old body being thrown in ways that no body was built to withstand.   
  
"Kyaaaa!"   
  
"Oh no, Akari! And on the first day of school, too!"   
  
"Someone call an ambulance -- I think she broke her leg."   
  
The pain was overwhelming, but not nearly as much as the mortification. Spraining her ankle on the first day of high school! She'd miss the welcome speech, she wouldn't know who was her class representative . . . and she'd be forever branded, as "you know, the broken foot girl."   
  
"What'll Hikaru say?" she mumbled before she let the pain drop her into the blessed realm of unconsciousness.   
  
---------------------------------  
  
Many hours later, Akari actually made it to school, one foot bound in a cast and both arms resting on crutches. She was quite high on painkillers, too, and floated through the two classes she actually attended as a result.   
  
When the final bell rang, she slipped gratefully out of the classroom and hobbled towards home, glad she didn't have her books just yet. The doctor had suggested that she go straight home and get some rest, but she had wanted to at least make an appearance on the first day.   
  
Now she was beginning to regret it. Her injured foot throbbed, the new shoe on her uninjured foot was biting into her toes, and the padded arms of the crutches were chafing the brand new underarms of her uniform.   
  
She felt extremely sorry for herself.   
  
"Honestly, Akari, I didn't realize you were such a klutz," a familiar tenor said from behind her, startling her and nearly causing her to trip again. Strong arms caught her before she fell, however, and she regained her precarious balance on one foot and two sticks.   
  
"Hikaru!"   
  
Ah, there he was! Her best friend since childhood. Their mothers had been friends, and so they had played together a lot when they were little. Then, when they'd been old enough to ride bikes, it was just a matter of several city blocks distance to cross to see each other. They'd gone through all of elementary school together, and looked forward to middle school . . . and then, in sixth grade, Hikaru had changed.   
  
She'd started to lose him, if she'd ever even really had him.   
  
Losing him was all right, since it was to a game and not another girl. But Akari was a determined person, and she'd relentlessly taken up go herself in order to keep some connection with him. And then he'd turned out to be some sort of go prodigy, and surpassed her in every way, until he'd walked the path of the pros, leaving her behind in his dust.   
  
Now he was out of school for good. Not that he needed it . . . his career was set for life.   
  
Hikaru stuck his tongue out at her. "Your mom called my mom and said you'd broken your leg, and that you were so stubborn that you actually went to school once the hospital let you go. Dummy."   
  
Akari shook her head. "If you were in the final rounds of a title match, and you broke your ankle, you'd still attend it, right?"   
  
"Of course! But that's different. I'd have a title at stake, not just my pride. Here, let me at least take your book bag."   
  
She studied him as they walked along. He hadn't stopped bleaching his bangs, which was a strange fashion taste he'd acquired when they were only ten, and he looked so lanky and tall now. His clothes were casual, light for the warm spring air, and there was an independent air to him that had not been there before he became a pro.   
  
"Ne, Hikaru," Akari started, to fill the awkward silence that had suddenly come up, "What do you do on days that you're not playing at the institute?"   
  
"Oh, I practice at home, or play games at one of the go salons . . . I've started tutoring children as well." He smiled to himself. "The cycle has to continue, you know. Some of the kids have so much potential . . ."   
  
"Unlike me," Akari said with a wry laugh. "I just couldn't keep up with you."   
  
He gave her a mock glare. "It's because you didn't try hard enough. If you played in all your free time like I did and studied like crazy, you might have discovered a talent that I couldn't see."   
  
She wrinkled her nose, the wind drifting her bangs into her face. She remembered looking up at his window last winter, as he stayed up late recreating old go games. He'd inspired her then to work toward her high school goal. "You always said I had no talent."   
  
"I was a dumb kid! How the heck could I test something like that back then?"   
  
"Well, now you're not a kid. Test me now. Let me know if I have ANY hope."   
  
Hikaru looked thoughtful. "Come to think of it . . . we haven't played a game in a long time. Let's swing by my house on the way home. We can play a quick game there. Your mom is probably still on the phone with mine about your leg, so she can tell her about it."   
  
"Hikaru . . . I don't think I can climb the stairs to your room right now."   
  
"Akari, I don't think it's appropriate for you to come up to my room anymore, actually." He cleared his throat. Akari felt her face growing warm. They weren't little kids anymore, that much was sure. "I'll bring the board downstairs; we can play in the living room. I'll let you know if you're hopeless then, okay?"   
  
"Okay!" She smiled. In his own way, Hikaru was trying to make her feel better. He had no idea how well it was working.   
  
---------------------------------  
  
"I'm home!" Hikaru called to his mother in greeting. "And Akari's here."   
  
Hikaru's mother immediately appeared from the kitchen, cordless phone firmly on her shoulder. "Oh, Akari-chan! Are you all right! Your mother was about to send your sister to pick you up."   
  
"I'm fine, really," Akari said, waving off her broken leg as if it were only a scratch. "Natsumi doesn't have to go through any trouble on my account."   
  
"Well, I'm glad to hear it. I'll bring you some tea, okay?"   
  
"Thanks, Mrs. Shindou!"   
  
Akari settled herself comfortably on the living room floor, arranging her skirt as modestly as she could with a bad leg stretched out before her. Hikaru ran upstairs for his go board, the nice one that his grandfather had given him a few years back. Hikaru's family living room was familiar, and she grinned at the wall that was now devoted solely to Hikaru's achievements in the go world. His mother still believed he should have gone to high school and gotten a "real" job, but the fact that Hikaru was now bringing his own genuine income was enough to quiet her protests.   
  
Hikaru carefully came down the stairs, balancing the kaya wood go stone containers on top of the heavy, square board. "Gee, these things aren't made for easy transport," he grumbled, as he felt around for the next step with his foot. Akari grinned to herself.   
  
"They're supposed to stay in one room all the time, aren't they?" she asked, and he nodded in affirmation.   
  
"It dates back to the Heian. One room in every mansion in Kyoto was the go room; there were other go boards scattered throughout each mansion, as well, but there was always one room formally dedicated to the game."   
  
"Kind of like the Room of Profound Darkness in the Go Institute?"   
  
"Yeah. Kind of like that." He set the heavy go board down in front of her with a grunt, and handed her a bowl of stones. "It should be black," he said by way of explanation. She pulled off the lid revealing soft, black shale stones. She picked one up, loving the familiar weight in her hand. Go was in her blood; perhaps not to the extent that it was in Hikaru's blood, but it was there nonetheless. It wasn't her destined path, but it was part of the whole that made up herself.   
  
She waited until he'd settled down across from her before she placed her first stone, on the upper right star.   
  
Hikaru silently placed his own stone, and the game began.   
  
She was no match for him; the boy who'd lost to the Korean Ko Yongha by only half a moku had already risen to two-dan in the weeks since.   
  
"You've gotten better," Hikaru said after she conceded defeat about mid-game. "Much, much better than I remember. Have you secretly been practicing or something?" He looked at her suspiciously out of one eye, but he was grinning.   
  
"Not really," she admitted. "But I have started reading Go World Weekly. This move here," she said, and pointed to a rather good move in one corner, "I saw in on of Ogata-10-dan's games a while back."   
  
"Ah! I thought I recognized the pattern. Good job," he said, now smiling openly. "We might just make an insei out of you yet."   
  
"Actually, Hikaru, I don't want to be an insei," she told him honestly. "I don't want to be a pro. Insei slots should be reserved for those who actually want to pursue a career in go . . ."   
  
"So what DO you want to do?"   
  
That same question. The question from this morning; the one she couldn't answer. She felt ill defined not knowing what the future held in front of her all of a sudden. Some vital part of her was missing because she did not have a goal. Starting the go club at her new school was something she wanted to do because it had to be done, and because it was cheaper than going to a salon every day. Drama club was just an idea, something to do if her go club failed. Neither of them were a means to an end.  
  
"I . . . don't know," she said softly, ashamed. "But I just don't think the path of go is the right one for me."   
  
She softly touched the kaya wood board, lovingly, mesmerized by the temptation of the game. A jolt of electricity raced up her arm, startling her, burning her. She cried in alarm.   
  
"Akari? Akari, what's wrong?" Hikaru said, dropping his smile in favor of an expression of alert panic.   
  
"The board . . . my . . . my arm . . .," she tried to explain, but the world was rapidly dimming before her. She thought she saw a flash of white cloth surrounded by sparkling motes of light for a moment, and she heard Hikaru frantically calling her name, but then the world went black, and she neither saw nor heard anything.  
  
---------------------------------  
  
She was warm and safe. That was all that mattered. Hikaru's face swam hazily in her memory, laughing and smiling. For the first time she saw something else in his eyes, the reflection of sadness and maturity, something that did not belong in brash young Hikaru's face. It was there only for a moment, but then it was gone, replaced once again by youthful, flashing eyes and his usual smirk.   
  
"Honestly, Akari!" Her sister Natsumi's sharp voice cut into the pleasant semi-dream she'd be having. "First you break your ankle, then you pass out, all on the first day of high school. What the hell do you think you were doing? You should have come straight home!"   
  
Akari had a feeling she was receiving a lecture second-hand from her mother, who was much closer to Natsumi than she was to Akari. Natsumi the perfect overachiever. Her rich, melodic voice, even in the stern tones of a good scold, echoed beautifully throughout the room. She wanted to be an idol; no, she WOULD be an idol, just as soon as she was discovered.   
  
Brimming with talent, Natsumi outshone Akari in all ways except two. Akari was better at go, and, as Hikaru had put it once, she actually knew how to be nice on both the inside and outside.   
  
Natsumi was nice on the outside, but Akari knew that the polished exterior hid a conniving, scheming money-grubber. To Akari, her terrifying, two-faced sister representated the bad example she'd never follow. Akari meant to outshine her sister someday, and she'd do it with honesty and honor.  
  
Her sister's nice mask was dropped at the moment. The real Natsumi was scolding Akari.   
  
" . . . nearly gave Dad a HEART ATTACK, what with you being at Hikaru's house and all. I had to assure him that I found you in their living room, and not upstairs ravaged on Hikaru's bed!"   
  
"His mom was there," Akari argued half-heartedly. "And Hikaru would never do something like that."   
  
"Uh huh," Natsumi sniffed. "All men are alike. They see a short skirt and loose socks -- UNCONSCIOUS -- and next thing you know you're ruined." She pretended to swoon and gracefully collapsed on Akari's bed. "My career would have been over before it began!"   
  
About the only trait Akari and Natsumi shared as a flair for the dramatic. Natsumi had passed up drama club to focus on her career as a singer, but she would have done quite well as an actress. You'd almost think she was the one that had had her leg broken today, the way she was acting, Akari thought unkindly, then squelched the mean thought.   
  
She poked her sister with her good foot. "So you came and rescued me? Thank you."   
  
Natsumi gave her a calculating look. "I only did it because Dad let me drive the convertible." She winked suddenly, then smiled, her face breaking into the same brilliant expression that Akari usually wore. She really was a good actress. "I got more whistles and catcalls today than I have in weeks! The lighting must have been good."   
  
"Aren't you worried about the evil men looking at your short skirt and loose socks and 'ruining' you?" Akari said dryly.   
  
"But this is for my career! It's different!"   
  
"Sure. Keep telling yourself that." Akari shoved her away with her foot this time, and collapsed back on her bed, wanting to go back to the dream about Hikaru's face. "Go away. I want to sleep."   
  
"Fine. Be that way and spurn your adoring older sister's love. By the way, Mitani called to check on you. He panicked more than dad when he found out you were passed out at Hikaru's house." Natsumi collected herself and stood up, straightening her skirt, her expression angelic. "Unlike Dad, I didn't tell him you were only in the living room."   
  
"That was cruel! Let me sleep!" Akari threw a pillow at her sister to emphasize the point. Natsumi left, her melodic voice positively cackling with insane glee.   
  
"Why is my family so crazy?" Akari muttered to herself, crawling under the blankets and trying to catch the wispy remnants of the happy Hikaru dream. "Why, why, why?"   
  
"Why, indeed," an unfamiliar male voice said in her head.   
  
Akari sat right back up and looked around her room desperately. No one was there. The room she shared with her sister was empty, the last light from the day filtering through the shaded window, casting a warm buttery glow over the distinct lack of people. Her sister's bed was neatly made. Their matching desks were covered in clutter, but no one sat in the chairs. Even the closet spilled open, revealing a thick tangle of garments that no human could have squeezed into.   
  
"I really have been overdoing it," Akari muttered to herself, snuggling under her covers.   
  
"Yes, you have," the voice said gently.   
  
Go away! Akari thought, as if she could make herself be quiet.   
  
"Look up," the voice said. "Beside you. Can you see me?"   
  
This time when she peered out from under the covers, there was someone there.   
  
He was tall, a fact emphasized by the old-fashioned tate-eboshi hat he wore. His clothes were heavy brocade, sewn in the style of the late Heian court. His skin was pale, his hair was long, glossy, and dark, and his hands graceful and lean.   
  
"Who are you?" Akari asked, a surprisingly coherent and appropriate question, considering the situation.   
  
The man smiled sadly. "My name is Fujiwara no Sai. And you are Fujisaka Akari. You may have trouble believing this, but I already know a lot about you."   
  
S-stalker! Akari's mind stuttered. Her eyes widened. She let out a scream so loud that all the dogs in the neighborhood started barking.   
  
"Get away get away get away," Akari said, flailing at the main with one of her crutches. He shielded himself with his arms, but even still it took Akari several moments before she realized the crutch was going through the man, and not actually hitting him.   
  
"Akari, what happened?" Natsumi burst back through the door, their mother and father closely on her heels.   
  
She knew she looked silly; one crutch poised in midair inside a man . . . a ghost . . . a . . . what?   
  
"I," she began, and blinked a few times before the man said, "You moved your leg and it hurt."   
  
Obediently, she repeated, "I moved my leg wrong. It hurt like hell." Her moment opened a closed a few times, unable to believe that she'd just followed the orders of an apparition.  
  
The three family members collapsed against the doorway. "Is that all?" her mother said with a sigh. "Akari-chan, you should be more considerate when you screech like that."   
  
"I thought Hikaru had come back to rape you after all!" Natsumi said with a wicked grin, causing their father's glasses to momentarily shine over and his fists to curl.   
  
"No . . . I'm alright. Really. I think." She tried her best to avoid looking at the ghostly being as she dropped the crutch. Apparently they couldn't see him or hear him. Just as well. Having a strange man in her room would really put a crimp in Natsumi's career, she thought idly.   
  
They left her alone and shut the door.   
  
"Are you . . . a ghost?" Akari said with a shudder. She'd always hated the idea of ghosts. The dead should stay dead.   
  
"Yes."   
  
"Why are you here?"   
  
Sai sighed, putting his hand to his forehead, and dropped down artlessly to the floor. "That's a question I've been asking myself for the last few hours. Why, indeed?"  
  
---------------------------------  
  
End Prologue 


	2. History Repeats Itself

---------------------------------  
  
Magical Ghost Go Princess Akari  
  
---------------------------------  
  
---------------------------------  
  
Author's Notes: So, um, yeah. It took me hella long to write another chapter for this. Even the constant begging from #soulriders wasn't enough to encourage me. Why now? I just suppose it was time, and the story has been rolling around in my mind lately.  
  
This story should conform to canon as much as possible. Any discrepancies in canon will be edited out, but you must tell me about them, because I lost my translations for the later volumes. cries It'll take Viz YEARS to put out the entire series, and in the meantime, all I have are my Japanese volumes to go by for the post-anime-series storyline.   
  
Any and all feedback is appreciated, especially constructive criticism. Point out my typos, tell me about confusing wording, and explain any character inconsistencies. I will love you for it.  
  
This story does indeed tie-in with Fujiwara. It's not exactly a sequel, but all the events as described in Fujiwara are considered to have occurred in this story as well. This will become very important in the future. I suggest you go read Fujiwara, because 1. It's a pretty good story, if I do say so myself, and 2. You won't be as confused in THIS story.  
  
Needless to say, there are humongous-ass spoilers for the entire manga. Welcome, Viz newbies.   
  
---------------------------------  
  
---------------------------------  
  
Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go belongs to Hotta Yumi and Obata Takashi. Not me. English manga rights belong to Viz. (YAY!) I subscribe to Shounen Jump and so should you.  
  
---------------------------------  
  
---------------------------------  
  
Chapter One  
  
---------------------------------  
  
Akari sat on the edge of her bad, looking at the ghost with a perplexed expression. How did he know her? Why did he seem so naggingly familiar?  
  
The ghost sighed again. "I suppose I should start from the beginning."  
  
"That's usually a safe place to start. You said your name was Fujiwarano Sai, right? From the Regency Fujiwara?"  
  
Sai smiled then. "You're correct! I served in the Heian court, as a tutor to the Emperor."  
  
"Wow," Akari said, a little overwhelmed. "You're almost a thousand years old then." Akari stood up, flipped on her reading lamp, and limped over to her bookshelf, where she pulled out a very old copy of "History of Japanese Go" and began to thumb through it. She didn't recall his name, but perhaps she had merely skimmed over it, as one of a dozen other Fujiwara of note.  
  
"More or less. I was falsely accused of cheating by my rival, who didn't want to lose his favorable position in the court. I was banished from the Capitol of Heian-kyo, and died two days later."  
  
Akari had found the listing of the late Fujiwara regency, and excitedly read a paragraph from it to the ghost. "I think you're in here! Listen: ' Kankou One: The tutor known as Fujiwara no Naritada retired, leaving his court position to both his nephew Fujiwarano Sai and his second cousin, whose name has been struck from history. Kankou Three: The tutor to the Emperor known as Fujiwarano Sai died. Kankou Four: The tutor whose name shall forever be banned from history began to teach his Majesty alone. Kankou Seven: The tutor known as Shindou Hikaru, a student of Fujiwarano Sai, traveled to Heian-kyou to avenge his master. Kankou Seven: The tutor whose name has been struck from history was exiled from court for six month. He lived out his life in the provinces. Kankou Seven: The tutor known as Shindou Hikaru died.' "   
  
Akari blinked and paled. The ghost was immediately behind her, staring over her shoulder in disbelief, not noticing that he was standing through her chair.  
  
"Oh my god," Akari said quietly. "I've read this book through, and never read that paragraph before."  
  
"That's because . . . that paragraph was never IN there before," Sai said, frozen disbelief on his face. "My name was struck from history. And Hikaru . . ."  
  
"You know Hikaru?" Akari asked, unable to look away from the name on the page. A man known as Shindou Hikaru had died, around one thousand ten AD. She brought her fist up to her face in horror. Surely she would have noticed the name before!  
  
Sai's voice was shaking quietly as he spoke. "Your friend Hikaru . . . I lived in his mind for three years. Just as I am now in your mind."  
  
It was all so overwhelming. Akari limped back to her bed and plopped down, forcing herself to breath and trying to calm her racing heart.  
  
"I interrupted your story before," she said, still staring at the old book. "We might get some answers if you begin again."  
  
Sai closed his eyes, and drifted over to the window, where he stared out at the landscape. "For over eight hundred years I wandered, until I found a young boy who was able to see me. You know that boy today as Honinbo Shuusaku. I stayed with him until the day he died, and then I remained in his go board until almost four years ago."  
  
"Four years ago . . . " Akari pondered. She was in sixth grade then, still in elementary school. "And that is when you met Hikaru?"  
  
"You were there as well that day, Akari," Sai said, turning to face her and smiling in a friendly manner. "You were there the day Hikaru found Honinbo Shuusaku's go board."  
  
Akari's eyes bugged out. "When Hikaru passed out from shock! That was YOU? And that was Honinbo Shuusaku's go board! That thing must be worth a fortune!" And Hikaru was going to just pawn it off, Akari thought unkindly, but shook her mind clear of that thought as soon as it appeared.  
  
Sai grew distant again. "I remained in Hikaru's mind until right after he passed his pro exams. Then, I knew that whatever I had been allowed to stay here for had finally been done. The Hand of God that eluded me so long was not to be mine."   
  
Akari was carefully fitting that story into the knowledge of Hikaru that she knew. All these years, she had wondered as to why Hikaru had become obsessed with the game. And right after he became a pro . . . he had been so depressed . . .  
  
"You two were very close, weren't you?" Akari said, choosing to ignore the damning paragraph for the moment.  
  
"Hikaru was probably the closest friend I ever had. Torojiru -- that is, Honinbo Shuusaku -- was a student but also very, very close to me. Hikaru, however, was even closer . . . perhaps because Hikaru changed me even more than I changed him."  
  
They were both silent for a little while, still adjusting to sharing one mind and to absorbing all the new information each had just received. To Akari, everything seemed so much clearer in retrospect. All the times Hikaru had argued with himself. How he kept insisting on attending go related events, even though he originally had no interest in the game, and then how he kept forcing himself to improve. And then there was his stint on the Internet, where for a whole summer he had visited Mitani's sister in the cyber cafe just to play go on the Internet for free. Who had really been playing go that summer?  
  
And of course, there was Touya Akira. Hikaru had been almost more obsessed with that person than he had been with the actual game at some times.  
  
"And what about me?" Akari finally said, bringing herself back to reality, or whatever her current situation could be called.  
  
Sai turned to look at her, cocking his head a little to one side, looking almost perplexed. "Surely I was brought back for a reason. That reason we will have to discover together. You already play go, so perhaps I am to help you as I helped Hikaru."  
  
Akari shook her head in denial. "I already decided that I don't want to follow Hikaru. I'm not good enough to become a professional. I don't even think I want to become a pro. If that's the reason you're with me, then you might as well be resigned to a long wait."  
  
Sai smiled sadly, his violet eyes appearing hollow in the dim light. "I've already waited a thousand years."  
  
"There is that . . ." Akari bit her lip, and returned to the bizarre little paragraph in the go history book. "I still can't believe what I'm reading here. I've never seen your name before. And here, connected to someone also named Shindou Hikaru, who claimed to be your student. Is my Hikaru the reincarnation of another Hikaru?" She hadn't even noticed the possessive she'd attached to Hikaru's name.  
  
"There has only been one Shindou Hikaru that was my student. And he lived in this time, not the Heian."  
  
Akari groaned and fell back onto her bed, imitating the dramatic swoon of her sister from earlier. "All this is making my head hurt. And my foot hurt more."  
  
"Believe me, I noticed," Sai said with a little grimace. "Your emotions are more open than Hikaru's were. Now I understand why he got so sick every time I opened my emotions up to his mind."  
  
"Oh. Sorry," Akari said, trying to erect some sort of mental barrier to hide her pain from the ghost.  
  
"There's not much you can do to stop it, I don't think. Why don't you rest for the night? Perhaps the dawn will bring clearer thinking and answers."  
  
Akari stifled a yawn. "Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and discover this was all a dream." She climbed into her bed, and then looked curiously at the ghost, who had settled himself into the empty chair next to her bookshelf. "What will you do while I sleep?"  
  
"Rest as well. You are exhausted, Akari, and I can sense your fatigue. Sleep now."  
  
Obediently, Akari snuggled into the covers and closed her eyes. She tried to recover the happy dream of Hikaru, but instead reflections of the past four years kept flooding into her mind. Hikaru had lived with this ghost for all that time. This Sai had been with him, through everything, and then had left. Hikaru had been devastated. He really had acted as though someone had died. And now, finally, she knew why.  
  
I can't tell Hikaru, Akari decided. I can't. Hikaru never told me about Sai, and so I will never tell him about Sai, either. I'll just have to live with him until . . . until whatever he's here for has happened.  
  
After Akari drifted off to sleep, Fujiwarano Sai returned to the book that she had left open, still not believing the words on the page.  
  
"Shindou Hikaru . . . student of Fujiwarano Sai . . . died. Kankou seven. Four years after I died."  
  
Sai was silent as he pondered the strange little paragraph.   
  
"The gods must surely be crazy."  
  
---------------------------------  
  
The alarm blasted early the next morning, causing both Akari and Natsumi to throw off their covers simultaneously.  
  
"I claim bathroom first!" Natsumi shouted, and leapt out of the bed, sticking her tongue out at her sister.  
  
"No fair! I can't win the race today!" Akari cried, and winced when she moved her leg. Natsumi tripped out of the room lightly, singing a song about waking up that she had probably improvised on the fly. Both of the girls were morning people; or perhaps, Natsumi was the morning person and Akari had been forced to become one too out of self-defense.  
  
"She's certainly perky for this hour," Sai said, and Akari instantly whipped her head around to see the ghost standing there, looking blankly at Natsumi's vacated bed.  
  
Akari had forgotten about him.  
  
The flood of yesterday's questions returned, along with Akari's headache.  
  
Akari decided to just accept the weirdness for the moment, in the hopes that not thinking about it too hard would make her head stop hurting. She was either crazy, or she wasn't -- either way, she might as well acknowledge the ghost.  
  
"Natsumi spends a full hour getting ready in the morning, you see," she said, with a sigh. "She's a senior in high school now, and while most girls spend their senior year cramming for the college entrance exams, Natsumi is spending it trying to be 'discovered' as an idol."  
  
"An 'idol'? She wants to be worshipped?"  
  
Akari smiled. "More or less. We use the English word 'idol' to describe a popular singer or actress. Natsumi plans on being an idol, and she has the talent to do so. She even saved up money and got a --" Akari shuddered suddenly, "-- nose job. She's saving up to get her eyelids done next."  
  
"That sounds very . . . strange. Although the standards of beauty in the Heian required that women shave their eyebrows to dots and use walnuts to stain their teeth to black." The ghost tapped his fan against his lips, a knowing smile on his face.  
  
"Yuck!" Akari grimaced. "I heard that in Europe, during the Victorian era, women would break their ribs to make their waist a few inches smaller. I suppose women are stupid for beauty no matter what time we're in." With a wince she lifted her foot out of the bed, and stood up gingerly. Natsumi would emerge from the toilet soon and go to the shower room, which was downstairs beside the family bath.   
  
Akari limped over to the closet, and pulled her brand new uniform off its hook. Natsumi attended a fine arts school, so her uniform was different. At least the costly uniform hadn't been damaged in her fall the day before.  
  
"Your uniform is different from what I remember," Sai commented from the peanut gallery.  
  
"Yes. This is a high school uniform." Akari caressed the green wool skirt and long-sleeved blazer top. "It's a little less childish than the old junior high uniform, and a much nicer color." Without thinking, Akari started rummaging around in a drawer for fresh underthings, until she saw the ghost peering curiously at her. She glared at him.  
  
"Is something wrong?" Sai asked, looking blank.  
  
"I'm . . . sort of used to dressing without a guy looking on," Akari said, hoping he'd take the hint.  
  
"Oh, don't worry, I've seen plenty of undressed women before." Sai smiled merrily at her.  
  
"That's not the point!" Akari hissed, glad she was still wearing all-concealing pajamas. She blushed and hated herself for it. "Could you at least turn around or something?"  
  
"Oh! Sorry," Sai said, understanding dawning on his face. He obligingly turned around. "Neither Torojiru or Hikaru were very modest with me after the first few days. I suppose it's different for a girl."  
  
"Yes, quite different," Akari agreed, her smile returning. Sai was actually very nice and understanding, apparently.  
  
Natsumi returned from the toilet then, brushing her hair. "What's different?" she asked Akari.  
  
Akari smiled more brightly to cover her surprise, and improvised. "The uniform. It's very, very different."  
  
Natsumi rolled her eyes. "Of course, dummy. Half the reason you picked that school was because of the uniform." She flounced over to their shared closet and pulled out her own uniform, which had originally been a severely cut black sailor suit with red trim, but which Natsumi had modified to be a bit more revealing. A few inches here, a bit of a trim there, and the thing had suddenly appeared to be tailored to her curvy figure. No one at her school had yet complained.   
  
Not knowing there was a male presence in the room, Natsumi pulled out her underwear with nary a thought. Akari sighed. This was going to be very, very complicated.  
  
She tried thinking to Sai in her head instead of talking aloud.  
  
"Can you stay in here while I use the toilet?" she asked the ghost.  
  
"I think I have to be in the same room as you," Sai said. "Torajiru and Hikaru never tried to leave me outside the door, however. Well, more than once, anyway."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"When Hikaru tried to leave me behind . . . I think he forgot that doors mean nothing to me any more."  
  
"Um. Then you haven't actually tried to stay outside the door while someone wanted privacy?"  
  
"No." The ghost looked quite thoughtful. "Since I am in your consciousness, but separate from it, I don't see why I can't remain in a different room, as long as we stay in relatively close proximity. I've just never tried it before."  
  
"Well, now's the time to start!" Akari flashed a genuine, brilliant smile at Sai, feeling better than she had since the ghost arrived. As long as she had some private girl time every once in a while, having a ghost in her mind wouldn't be so bad.  
  
Especially if he could help her out with Hikaru problems, a particular part of her mind added.  
  
"Are you just going to stand there staring into space all morning?" Natsumi asked, as she exited their bedroom. "Earth to Akari . . ."  
  
Akari shook her head to clear it, and then smiled at her sister. "Just thinking to myself!" she said hastily.  
  
"You think too much, sis."  
  
Akari sighed as Natsumi rolled her eyes and left to go take a shower.   
  
"Anyway, you stand in the hallway. I'll just be a few moments." She left the room and went to the end of the hallway, where she quite firmly shut the bathroom door, leaving Sai to float contentedly outside. Privacy was assured, at least temporarily.  
  
---------------------------------  
  
The morning passed without further incident. Sai had remained outside while Akari showered, and had obligingly faced the wall while she dressed.   
  
For breakfast, he hovered behind Akari, listening with apparent interest to the morning news as being discussed around the table. Akari's mother was in the kitchen, ear firmly on phone as she chattered with Hikaru's mother.  
  
"Stocks are down again," Akari's father said, frowning at the newspaper beside him.  
  
"What's new?" Natsumi said with another of her famous eye-rolls. "This recession is killing my chances of being discovered. Every two-bit skinny girl out there is trying to win a contract, and in the meantime diamonds like myself are left in the shadows."   
  
"I'm sure it will happen soon, sis," Akari said encouragingly. To Sai, she said, "And if it doesn't, then she can always just get married. She has enough admirers that she can have her pick of fiancés. But she never goes out with any boys." Akari had always found it strange, but Natsumi was so strange overall that a little more strangeness didn't change much.  
  
"Oh, and Akari," her father said, gruffly, as he prepared to slurp down miso soup, "I'm sure you already know, but Shindou-kun has made it through the preliminaries for the Ouzo title."  
  
"No, I didn't know!" Akari grinned widely. "He didn't even tell me, the sneak. I'll have to tell him congratulations the next time I see him."  
  
"Ah, that's one of the titles that pros compete for, isn't it?" Sai said, smiling almost as largely as Akari. "I'm very proud of him."  
  
Akari turned around to face him, and thought to him, "It's because of you that he became a pro, isn't it?"  
  
Sai nodded. "More or less. It was his will and his talent that allowed him to do so, but I am as proud of him as any master whose student will someday surpass him."  
  
"Hikaru will surpass you?"  
  
"Yes. Of that I am sure. He is still raw in his strength, but someday, once he has tempered it, he will indeed be stronger than I."  
  
Akari turned back to her plate, contemplating that statement. She had known Hikaru was powerful . . . she knew enough about go to respect his talent . . . but Sai, who had been the go of Honinbo Shuusaku, seemed like a formidable player in his own right.   
  
She had to find out for herself.  
  
"Sai, would you play a game of go with me?" she asked, and she was suddenly overwhelmed with an incredible feeling of joy. She nearly choked on the toast she had just bitten into.  
  
"Oh! I would love to play a game of go! Do you have a go board here? Can we play right now?"  
  
Akari looked blankly at the ghost, who was dancing around her family's breakfast table in excitement.  
  
"Er, not right now," she said, and inwardly cringed at the disappointed look on the ghost's face. "I have to go to school now. And the only board I have is a flip board here at home. I was thinking that we might visit the salon after school today, the one where I attend go lessons."  
  
"Is that the same one that Hikaru went to?" Sai asked, regaining control of his emotions.  
  
Akari almost nodded before she caught herself. Holding a conversation in her mind was difficult -- she kept wanting to gesture like normal, but her family would think she was still sick and probably send her back to the hospital if she started gesturing without speaking.  
  
"Yes! And we can play on a real board there. I'll just tell sensei that I want to play a game out that I saw someone else play, and he'll understand. You and Hikaru played games together, right?"  
  
"All the time."  
  
"How did you do it?"  
  
"You've been awfully quiet this morning, Akari," her father said, interrupting the conversation she had been having with the ghost. "Are you sure you're well enough to go to school?"  
  
"Of course! In fact, I should be leaving now, since I have to walk a little more slowly than normal." Leaving half her breakfast untouched, Akari stood up, grabbed her crutches, and began to limp out of the kitchen. She picked up her still empty school bag and shouted back at the breakfasting crew, "I'm going!"  
  
"Have a safe trip!" her mom called back without even peering out of the kitchen.  
  
"Come on, Sai," Akari said, and headed for the door. "We can talk more on the way to school."  
  
"Okay!" Sai sang happily, and took up a comfortable spot behind her.  
  
Akari had no sooner made it out of the door than she was greeting with yet another surprise.  
  
"Hikaru?" She and Sai said simultaneously. Her breath frosted in the nippy air.  
  
"He's gotten taller," Sai remarked.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Akari asked.  
  
Hikaru looked a little sheepish. "I came to walk you to school. Actually, my mom sent me, with the admonition that since you fainted because of me, it was my responsibility to make sure it didn't happen again."  
  
"It wasn't your fault," Akari protested.  
  
"Right! It was mine! Didn't you see? Can't you see me now?" Sai said, and Akari glanced back at him. He looked very sad. This was probably a difficult encounter for him.  
  
Sai had lived in Hikaru's mind for three years. That was three years that they had done everything together . . . teacher and student, mentor and learner, master and apprentice.  
  
And now he was with Akari, instead.  
  
"Are you okay, Akari?" Hikaru asked, and frowned at her.  
  
"Oh! I'm all right. I'm just a little surprised. Aren't you supposed to be at the Go Institute, or something?" Akari said, and reluctantly handed Hikaru her book bag. They began to walk down the sidewalk together, as they had done so many years before.  
  
A thousand years ago, a man named Shindou Hikaru had died.  
  
For three years, Fujiwarano Sai had lived in the mind of Shindou Hikaru.  
  
And now they were walking beside each other, and he seemed like a perfectly normal fifteen year old, albeit one with an unusual career path.  
  
The ghost floated silently behind them. Akari tried to squelch her nervousness.  
  
"I don't go in for another hour," Hikaru said with a shrug. "It's only the old men that go in there right when the institute opens. I'll catch a train later."  
  
"I heard you're in the preliminaries for the Ouzo title." Akari was a little hurt he hadn't told her himself.  
  
"Bah. The preliminaries are nothing. When I make it to the final eight like Touya did, then that's something to mention." Hikaru waved his hand dismissively. "I'm also in the preliminaries for Meijin and 10-dan."  
  
"Wow," Akari said, honestly impressed.  
  
"Congratulations," Sai said softly from behind them.  
  
Curiosity and a bit of cheekiness prompted Akari to ask, "If you had to owe one person for getting you this far, who would it be?"  
  
Hikaru was silent for a moment, and then he replied in one of the most thoughtful tones Akari had ever heard him use. "Touya was the major motivation I had all along." He began ticking off on his fingers. "Touya-Meijin showed me a more distant target to strive for, in the future. Ogata-10-dan scared me into playing better than anyone. Kurata-san also scared me, but he also inspired me. And yet . . ." Hikaru trailed off.  
  
"And yet?"  
  
Hikaru laughed. "The person I owe the most was someone I played with online. Strange, isn't it? That person taught me more than anyone else. I wish I could thank him now."  
  
"That was me!" Sai said, apparently for Akari's elucidation. He sounded quite excited. "I'm the only one he 'played with' online!"   
  
"I see," Akari said, responding to both comments at once. She glanced back at Sai, who was looking a lot happier now.  
  
They paused at a traffic light, and remained silent as they crossed the street, Akari hobbling as fast as she could.  
  
"We're almost there," Akari said, and nodded off to the next block, where dozens of other green uniforms milled about already. "Let me know how your preliminary matches go, Hikaru."  
  
"Sure. Believe me, if I make it to the final matches, you'll probably be one of the first to find out -- because my mom will tell your mom, and then between the two of them the entire ward will know."  
  
Akari couldn't help but laugh, because it was really true.   
  
At the gate he handed her the book bag, and waved goodbye. "Stay safe!" he warned. "Or my mom will kill me."  
  
"Good luck on your matches!" Akari answered cheerfully.  
  
To Sai, she said, "This is my high school. It's one of the better schools in the area, but more importantly, it's only six blocks away, so I can walk in just a few minutes. Natsumi has to take a train to get to her school."  
  
"Do you have a go club here?" Sai asked as they entered the schoolyard. Akari waved to some of the people she knew, but headed slowly for the steps. She wanted to just sit in homeroom until the bell rang.  
  
"Not yet. I want to start one. But I think I have to be a second-year to start a club on my own, so what I really need to do is find a junior or senior who is willing to take the jump with me."  
  
"Ahhh."  
  
She settled in homeroom, and was quite surprised when a cluster of girls, some who were familiar, others who were strangers, surrounded her.  
  
"Hi! I'm Tanaka Hana! You can call me Hana-chan!" An exuberant girl that reminded Akari a little of herself greeting her with an extremely wide smile. "You're Fujisaki Akari, right? Is your leg okay?"  
  
"Ankle," Akari corrected with a matching sunny smile. "And it will be fine, once it heals."  
  
"And was that cute guy with you your boyfriend?" another strange girl asked.  
  
"No, that's Shindou Hikaru," one of Akari's old friends from middle school contributed. "He's Akari's best friend. Or at least he was. They kinda grew apart in middle school. Oh, and I'm Suzuki Maria." The blonde was a bit shy. She was one of the girls Akari had roped into the go club so that she could go to competitions.  
  
"Oh, so he's available!" the strange girl squealed. "I'm Yamada Makoto, by the way."   
  
"What high school does he go to? He wasn't wearing a uniform."  
  
"How old is he?"  
  
"Why does he wear his hair like that? I mean, it's cool, but it's a bit odd . . ."  
  
The cluster of girls continued bombarding Akari with questions. Fortunately, Maria helped her field them as best she could, but even so Akari's head had begun to pound again by the time the bell to start homeroom finally rang.  
  
"Women really don't change that much throughout the ages," Sai remarked, a little sympathetically.   
  
Akari answered with a mental groan in response.  
  
The homeroom teacher took roll and handled the morning business. Akari wondered how she was going to survive the rest of the day. At least she wouldn't have to walk around all day.  
  
"Do you need any help with your classes?" Sai offered. Akari looked back at him, surprised.  
  
"No," she told him. "I'm actually pretty well prepared. I studied very, very hard to get into this school; so much so that a lot of what we're going over is practically review for me. Did you help Hikaru?"  
  
"Quite a bit. He hated studying. At first, I'd help him in exchange for letting me play go."  
  
"That sounds a bit like cheating," Akari said to Sai with a frown.  
  
"Eventually, he just stopped caring about school. He barely graduated from middle school because he never studied."  
  
"I know."  
  
The nagging little paragraph from the night before entered her mind again.  
  
A man named Shindou Hikaru, student to Fujiwarano Sai, had died in Kankou seven, or one thousand ten AD.  
  
"Did Hikaru ever express an interest in your time?" Akari said, as the math teacher up front droned on about angles and lines.  
  
"Not really," Sai said, looking thoughtful. "He was more interested in the actual game than its history. Touya Akira called him the most uneducated go player in the entire professional ranks."  
  
Akari stifled a giggle. "Yeah, that's Hikaru. So what could that paragraph mean? If there was only one Shindou Hikaru that you taught, it means that the Hikaru in the history book is the same Hikaru that hates history."  
  
Sai was silent for a moment, and then shook his head. "I am not sure I understand it at all. Either there was indeed another Shindou Hikaru that merely claimed to be my student, or our Hikaru has somehow mastered the ability to travel through time."  
  
"That's impossible. The former seems more likely an explanation." Akari obediently began copying down the notes that the teacher was scrawling on the blackboard, grateful that she knew geometry and trigonometry inside out by now.  
  
"It does seem more logical, but remember, I am a thousand year old ghost. Logic doesn't exactly apply to me any more."  
  
Akari's ears perked up as she heard the teacher speak of a computer lab in the school.  
  
"The lab will be reserved for our use once a week. Otherwise, it is open to you during all free periods, lunch periods, and before and after school begins. You may use the computers there to assist you with your math homework. I recommend attending no less than once a week on your own time. The computers are also connected to the Internet, so that you can do research for your math problems if needed."  
  
"Hey, did you hear that, Sai?" Akari said, physically turning to face him, forgetting herself. "If we go during lunch, we can play a game on the computers. Hikaru said there are plenty of go games available online."  
  
"Ah, yes," Sai said. "We played quite often on the internet. There was a whole summer that we played every day. It was wonderful."  
  
"I remember that summer," Akari said. "I figured you had something to do with it, looking back."  
  
Sai nodded eagerly, and then said, "You might want to face forward again. Your teacher is looking at you strangely."  
  
Blushing, Akari turned around again and began to scribble notes furiously. She still continued to talk to Sai, however.   
  
"Hikaru let me play every day. I understand later that I caused quite a stir. Everyone wanted to play with me. I did finally get to play a game with Touya Meijin over the Internet . . . it was a wonderful game." Sai closed his eyes, rapturously. Akari could not see him now, but she felt the glowing joy the ghost was emanating at the memory.  
  
"So you played against other people, not just Hikaru?" Akari hadn't guessed that much.  
  
"Oh yes. On the Internet, you see, no one can tell that I'm a ghost. Hikaru ran the controls. I directed him."  
  
"That's a great idea! I can learn just as much watching you play as I can playing you myself." Akari smiled, and copied notes from the blackboard. "Let's go during my lunch break."  
  
"Can you walk that far?"  
  
Akari hid an unladylike snort. "I'll be fine."  
  
Sai looked at the girl, who was diligently copying notes, and sighed peacefully. Whatever reason he had been brought back, at least the host was far more willing than the previous one had been to help him out.  
  
---------------------------------  
  
End Chapter One  
  
--------------------------------- 


	3. Lunch Break and Drama Club

Author's note:  
  
Although I make it a point to avoid gratuitous fangirl Japanese as much as possible, I regret that I must include a mini-glossary of Random Hard-To-Translate Japanese Terms You'll Probably Not Be Familiar With for this chapter. (Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.)  
  
Kabuki: Traditional Japanese theatre, with heavily stylized drama, music, elaborate costumes and staging, and an all-male cast. (Originally it was all-female, but after too many actresses prostituted themselves out to the shogun's soldiers, distracting them from their duty, women and then little boys (!) were forbidden from performing theatre.)  
  
Shingeki: "New Theatre." The Japanese adaptation of modern western theatre.  
  
Sei Shonagun's "Pillow Book": Most accurately described as the world's first ever blog, this was the diary of a famous Heian courtier, who was most likely a contemporary of Sai. Translations are available everywhere.  
  
Additional Note:  
  
The end of this chapter is written as a series of emails. I had cute email address and everything for the characters, but FFNet hates you and I and our alternative means of writing stories, so they were stripped. I tried to make it as readable as possible despite this censorship.  
  
This chapter was written as Tropical Depression Frances poured forth rainy, windy sadness on my city.

* * *

"Our Tuesday and Thursday study period is connected to lunch, so we might have time for a full game," Akari said, as she limped along the hallway of the school. "Unfortunately, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays don't have a free period, so we might be better off just going to a go salon after school."  
  
Sai was beaming, the smile so wide it practically slid off his face. "Whatever works!"  
  
Akari could just about imagine him in a chibi form, dancing circles around her, saying, "Wai! Wai! I get to play go!" She giggled to herself at the mental image.  
  
"Have you ever lost a game?" she asked him, curious.  
  
"Everyone has to lose sometimes. I try to make it as rare as possible, however."  
  
"That's the simplest goal to have," Akari agreed, still grinning over the image of dancing Sai. They reached the library, and she pushed open the double doors to the main foyer.  
  
Inside was fairly spacious, with the books on one end and the business part of the library on the other. Akari breathed in the smell of books, and then made her way to a small section with cubicles that had the school computers.  
  
"Hello," a librarian said to her as she passed the check-out desk, "Are you new?"  
  
Akari stopped and smiled brightly. "Yes! Our math teacher said there were computers here available for our use." He had been referring to math specifically at the time, but Akari figured that the librarian already knew that.  
  
The librarian nodded, a little surprised. "Most students don't start coming here until the second week. You must be a good student if you're already getting a head start during your free period."  
  
"I'm not really," Akari said honestly, although the librarian probably assumed it was just modesty. "I just want to familiarize myself with them as soon as I can. We don't have a computer at home yet."  
  
Akari was escorted to a cubicle in the corner.  
  
"Do you know how to navigate the Internet?" the librarian asked, pulling out a chair for Akari.  
"I know the basics. You can search for what you want, and then basically surf from there, correct?"  
  
The librarian nodded. "Yes. There are other, more complex things available as well, but those probably won't be necessary just for school work. The math program you'll need is on the desktop," the librarian pointed to it, "and that is not connected to the Internet so you can use it easily."  
  
Akari settled down in the chair and smiled at the librarian. "I'll let you know if I have any problems."  
  
"Good luck!" the librian said, and left her with a matching smile.  
  
"Hikaru and I used to play on something called a 'server.' I think it was located at ke-ji-esu-dotu-kiseido-dotu-shi-o-em." Sai looked pleased with himself.  
  
"Wow! That's a good memory." Akari typed in the web address in roman letters on the keyboard. "Especially since you don't read English. How did you learn it?"  
  
"Hikaru would mutter it under his breath every time we played at the computer. I picked it up quite easily."  
  
"Hmmmm." Akari looked at the webpage, which was in English, and struggled to read the foreign language. "I believe I have to download something. Or not . . ." She clicked the button with the go stones, which brought up another window with more English.  
  
She bit her lip, muttering the English aloud, much as Hikaru must have done.  
  
"Hikaru actually read this?" she asked Sai.  
  
"No, he always got Mitani's sister to set things up for him." Sai pointed to the blank fields. "He said that my name went into the top field --"  
  
Akari typed in the letters "S A I" and then waited.  
  
"And I don't know what he typed in the bottom field."  
  
Akari sighed. "Let's play around. Hmmmm . . . maybe . . . Hikaru?" She typed in her friend's name into the password field, and then clicked "OK." She crossed her fingers. Nothing happened.  
  
Akari was at a loss. "I can't exactly go ask him for the password to his account without him becoming really suspicious. Let's try 'igo'," she typed the word in English, ". . . and that's a no. Hmmm." Akari pondered over the dilemna. "You said Mitani's sister actually set things up?" Sai nodded. "Did she type a long word or a short word in the password field?"  
  
"She had to hit a lot of keys." Sai said. "Unfortunately she typed so quickly I couldn't see the whole thing. She started with this one, that I do know." Sai pointed to the "F" key with his fan.  
  
"That's the English letter for F. Ha-hi-fu-he-ho -- unless it was a word in English. But let's try Fu . . . Fujiwara?"  
  
She picked out the English letters, sticking her tongue out in concentration. Romaji was so inefficient for Japanese . . .  
  
She clicked enter, and then breathed a sigh of relief. Hikaru was very uncreative when it came to passwords, apparently.  
  
"Welcome back, Sai!" the screen said. "You have 198 new messages."  
  
"I think we're in!" Akari said with a smile. "And wow, you were popular. Now . . . let's see. How to actually play . . ."  
  
After a few moments of fiddling around with the applet that had loaded on the computer, she managed to find the Japanese rooms. No sooner had she entered, but a message popped up.  
  
"What's that?" Akari said, sounding out the English words. "Yu-saa ze-ru-da ha-su . . ."  
  
"It means someone has challenged us," Sai said. "I remember that happened quite often."  
  
"Oh! Shall we accept?"  
  
A brilliant gleam appeared in Sai's eye, although Akari couldn't see it.  
  
"Accept."

* * *

"Awww, man, another punk is on here trying to claim to be Sai again," Waya complained to the air. He was on an off-day, with no scheduled pro games to play, and was relaxing in his tiny student apartment for a few hours before he'd head out to tutor some young children. The life of a pro wasn't all fun and games, he had learned, especially when one was trying to cough up enough money for rent.  
  
Determined to teach the interloper a lesson, Waya sent a challenge.  
  
After a few moments, the fake accepted, and Waya cracked his knuckles in gleeful anticipation.  
  
"Just you wait and see what happens when tangle with the pros!" Before the game began, he sent an instant message to Isumi, who was also online due to an off day.  
  
"Yo, Isumi, we got another Sai fake here. Get on the server and go to the Japanese game room. And spread the word to the mailing list!"  
  
After a few minutes, Isumi's message came back with, "Got it."

* * *

"Wow, look at all the people joining in to watch," Akari said. "The game hasn't even started yet."  
  
"I told you, I was pretty infamous on the internet for a while there," Sai said, sounding very pleased.  
  
Akari looked at the growing number of spectators in the game, and bit her lip. Sai was not kidding -- there were twenty people already watching a game that hadn't started.  
  
A thought began to trickle into her mind, one that had been nagging in the back since she'd acquired the mental room mate, but she had yet to give voice to.  
  
"Sai . . ." she began, looking back at him with wide eyes, "just how good of a go player are you?"  
  
The beautiful man tapped his fan thoughtfully against the side of his pale face.  
  
"Well . . . Honinbo Shuusaku, the name I played under in the mind of Torajiru, is apparently considered the greatest player of all time now. And when I played Touya Meijin, I won a very close game, and he is considered the greatest player in Japan today." He smiled then, although the expression was almost defensive as opposed to genuine. Akari had the sudden feeling that he was hiding something.  
  
"You said you had played the Meijin before on the internet," she probed. "How?"  
  
"Hikaru arranged it. Otherwise, it was exactly like we're about to play now." He tapped his fan against the glass screen of the monitor. "Now focus. You are familiar with the star points on the board, and the positions, correct?"  
  
"Yes," Akari said. She reminded herself to ask more about Sai's game against the Meijin later. "You must have been there as Hikaru would drill me on them."  
  
Sai smiled again, and it was real this time. "And so I was. Then let's play!"  
  
Obediently, Akari pressed a button that said "Start Game." She selected a one hour time limit, and prayed that the game would go faster than that. The computer automatically assigned Sai's account black.  
  
"Is that random?" she asked.  
  
"When we first started playing, we were always black. Then as we kept winning, we suddenly switched to almost always white. I think the computer keeps track of rank and number of wins."  
  
"I see," Akari said, and looked at the applet screen more closely. "Your account appears to be ranked at 8-dan. Our opponent is 9-dan."  
  
"That would make sense then. Let's begin. The upper right star," Sai commanded.  
  
Akari clicked on the point on the board, and a black stone appeared.  
  
Behind Akari, Sai breathed deeply. Whatever the reason he'd returned . . . at least he would be able to continue to play go.

* * *

"Hey, this fake is pretty good," Waya muttered, fifteen minutes later. Comments between the spectators were flying quickly in English on the game board. "And he does seem to be playing . . . a lot like Sai did." Waya scowled at his laptop screen. "No way. Just . . . no way."  
  
An instant message from Isumi popped up. Waya spared it only a glance.  
  
"This person is playing under the old Sai's account, as well," the message reported. "Unless someone hacked into his KSG account, this guy's the real deal."  
  
"Bah," Waya replied aloud to the message. "It's an applet, you can't hack into one of those . . . has Sai really returned?"  
  
Waya clicked on a point, attaching to black in a very tricky life and death situation. There was only one way black could survive, or so he thought. Instead of responding where Waya had intended for him to, however, the Sai account placed the stone in another location entirely. Too late, Waya saw what black intended, and he was fairly powerless to stop it.  
  
He actually laughed aloud then.  
  
"It's really him, after all," he said, staring at his ceiling in wonder. "It's been almost a year, but Sai has returned!"  
  
Grinning, Waya attacked back, taking this game truly seriously perhaps for the first time. There were still so many things he could learn from Sai!

* * *

Akari watched in frustration as the conversation on the game board flew by in a language she only barely undersood. Occassionally, someone would comment in romanized Japanese, but the language seemed to be universally English otherwise.  
  
"Good move there," one person commented.  
  
"Wow! Zelda might lose this game!" another said.  
  
A troll popped up during the flow of the conversation.  
  
"OMG SAI! IT'S SAI! SAI! LOL! 2 G00D 2 B TRU!"  
  
"The 7-8 point," Sai told Akari.  
  
She forced herself to look at the game and not the flurry of commentary scrolling past from the peanut gallery. "I wish there was some way to shut that off," she said, clicking the appropriate spot on the board. "It's distracting."  
  
"I don't even know how to read the letters, so I don't notice," Said said, with a shrug. "Hikaru couldn't read it either."  
  
"Well, I can read some of it, or at least I could if it wasn't going so fast," Akari sighed. "Mostly it's just people commenting on the game, or saying 'Wow, Sai's back!'"  
  
"Really?" Sai sounded happy. White's stone appeared on the screen. "The 18-6 spot, please."  
  
Akari obeyed. The game WAS very intense. "This Zelda person is really good," she said, studying the complex board. "And so are you. You weren't kidding . . . this is incredible."  
  
"We're playing Zelda?" Sai said, blinking in surprise. "I suppose he would remember me, after all . . "  
  
"Oh? You've played him before?"  
  
"During the summer that Hikaru and I played. He was our first opponent then as well."  
  
"So you're connected," Akari said, smiling a bit at the screen.  
  
"I crushed him back then. Well, well. He's improved a great dea."  
  
Akari was silent for a few moments, letting the ghost direct her hand and watching the beautiful stone war before her. Black was winning by a solid lead, but they weren't even halfway into the game yet. Fortunately, neither player was dragging too much.  
  
"Are you doing okay back there?" the librarian said, from the other side of the cubicle. Akari started suddenly, and barely caught herself before she clicked on a bad spot by accident.  
  
She popped up, like a prairie dog, and smiled reassuringly at the library, quickly minimizing the go game.  
  
"I'm just fine," she said brightly. She wasn't sure if she'd be punished for playing go on the school's computers, but she didn't want the librarian to know she'd misled her.  
  
"Let me know if you need any help," the librarian reminded her, and walked away.  
  
Akari breathed a sigh of relief. She said down, a bit shakily, and reopened the window with the go applet.  
  
"White played . . . there." Akari pointed to the board.  
  
Sai nodded. "I can see. Then we'll continue on at 7-14."  
  
The game resumed. Akari marveled at the beauty of the game. She herself was only a novice by all accounts, but she could tell that both players were incredibly high level, and that Sai was the more skilled of the two. If Zelda was a pro, which she suspected, then Sai was on a level even above that.  
  
Finally, after she'd thought Zelda intended to carry on until end game, a sign popped up on screen, stated that Zelda had resigned. Akari read the English quietly aloud to herself, and then translated to Sai.  
  
"He resigned," she told him.  
  
"I figured he would. Zelda is a solid player, and it would be pointless to continue any more. He knows that he can retain some honor and dignity at this point by allowing the loss on his record without it being a finished game."  
  
"I'm afraid that's all we have time for, now," Akari said, almost regretfully. "I need to go eat something before my stomach implodes."  
  
Sai smiled serenely, closing his eyes. "Ah, but it felt good to play again, even one game. I had to learn to be patient with Hikaru, who took to playing too much on his own time." There was a faint note of sadness to the ghost's voice.  
  
"Hikaru can be pretty selfish," Akari acknowledged. She logged off the computer and gathered her things. The riceballs, vegetables, and egg slices she had in her lunchbox were calling to her.  
  
"I don't begrudge him those games, however," Sai replied. "Hikaru was a genuine student, and I do believe that he will surpass me someday. Even if I failed to reach the Hand of God, I know that Hikaru too will have a chance, once he matures as a player."  
  
Akari waved goodbye to the helpful librarian, and left the library, making her way back to her classroom. "So is Hikaru better than you?"  
  
"No," Sai answered honestly, with a hint of pride. "I am still the better player. But Hikaru is alive, and therefore, he has more potential. That is the greatest difference between the dead and the living." Sai blinked, thought about what he had just said, and then amended his statement. "Well, the second greatest difference, anyway. The greatest difference is that the dead tend not to have a body."  
  
Akari actually laughed aloud.

* * *

Most of the class had already eaten, and small conversation groups had formed as the students chattered excitedly about the usual school nothings. Akari had been hoping to slip in quietly (a difficult feat with crutches) and wolf down her food, but she was immediately accosted by her new aquaintances from this morning.  
  
"Where were you?" Makoto demanded. "I want to know more about Shindou-san!"  
  
"I was in the library," Akari answered, and quickly opened up her lunch box. Ah, the food looked good! Before she was forced to elaborate, she stuffed a riceball in her mouth, almost moaning in pleasure at the faintly salty taste.  
  
"You're not a study-aholic, are you?" Hana-chan asked, frowning.  
  
"She was in cram school with me, if that answers your question," Maria said.  
  
"Tell me more about Shindou-san!"  
  
Akari swallowed her bite of riceball, and waved her hands in mild frustration. "I will, but let me eat first!"  
  
"So what WERE you doing in the library?" Hana-chan persisted.  
  
Giving up, Akari took out a sheet of paper and began writing down the answers to the constant questions.  
  
She wrote: "I was on the computer."  
  
"Doing what?"  
  
"What type of girl does Shindou-san seem to go for?"  
  
"We have computers in the library?"  
  
Attacking her eggs, Akari furiously wrote, "Yes, we have computers in the library. Our math teacher said so. I was playing on the Internet there. Hikaru doesn't have a 'type' of girl, since he doesn't date."  
  
"Ohhhhhh," Makoto sighed, bitter disappointment seeping into her voice. "He's not gay, is he? All the cute ones are always gay." She pouted prettily, twirling one strand of long black hair. "Then again, it's not so bad if there are two of them that are cute and gay together . . ."  
  
"NO." Akari wrote in large characters, underlining the word for emphasis. "Hikaru is NOT gay."  
  
"What does 'gay' mean?" Sai asked, looking over the half-written conversation.  
  
Akari blushed furiously. "It's a term for people liking other people of the same sex." Dreading the answer, she prompted, "Hikaru doesn't love other boys, does he?"  
  
Sai shrugged. "He's certainly passionate about Touya Akira, but that's on a strictly rival level. They love beating each other and upstaging each other. Actually, Hikaru never had romantic inclinations towards anyone, as far as I could tell. Unless things have changed in these last few months, he's still probably as celibate as a monk." Sai quirked his handsome mouth. "I always thought one of these days he would wake up and realize that there are pretty women in the world, but even you he apparently saw as just another person, which is ultimately his loss."  
  
Akari groaned mentally. "Great. He's not homosexual, he's antisexual."  
  
All this time Akari had been quickly packing away her lunch. It was nice to be able to eat and have a conversation at the same time. Quite convenient.  
  
The bell rang, signalling the end of the free period, just as Akari knocked back the last of her juice.  
  
"Finished!" she said to Sai triumphantly. "I had my lunch and go game too!"  
  
"Thank you," Sai said, and settled back down in the aisle next to her. "Now it's time to learn again."  
  
"Don't remind me," Akari said half-heartedly, but forced herself to pay attention to the science teacher.

* * *

The afternoon classes flew by quickly. Akari was a bit more grateful to Sai than before, as he kept her awake and forced her to focus on the classes, whether she wanted to or not. Apparently, Hikaru had been even more of a slacker than Akari had suspected, and Sai's assistance had been the only way he had survived three years of junior high.  
  
As the final bell rang, Sai began dancing circles around her again.  
  
"Are we going to go to a go salon?" he asked excitedly. "Hikaru knew this great place that always had people looking for a game . . ."  
  
"Er, not quite yet," Akari said sheepishly. "I want to check out the school's drama club. It's supposed to be the best in the ward, outside of my sister's school."  
  
"Drama club?" Sai stopped dancing immediately.  
  
"It's a theatre group. From Shuusaku's time, you remember kabuki theatre, right?"  
  
Sai nodded. "We saw several kabuki troups pass through. It was quite lavish, and I'm surprised the courtiers in our time didn't have something similar. But aren't kabuki players always men?"  
  
Akari smiled. "Well, in actual kabuki, yes. The drama club is not a kabuki theatre club -- they perform western plays as well as literature stories enacted as plays. The tradition doesn't have as deep a history in Japan as it does in other countries, but it's still quite powerful. I was really glad to learn that this school had a club for drama, even if it didn't yet have a go club. Most schools besides the fine arts schools don't have them."  
  
She began to limp out of the classroom, waving to her new friends as she tottered down the hallway. The school drama club met in the school auditorium once a week during normal time, and five days a week during play rehearsals. It was as intense as a sports team during those times, her sister had told her, and she'd better be prepared to devote a lot of time.  
  
Natsumi had only performed in a few plays herself, when they needed a singing part. The rest of her days were filled with vocal lessons, modeling lessons, and dancing lessons. Natsumi was a fine arts prodigy, but she was also cool and calculating, and knew that her best chance at success with her gifts was to break into the music industry.  
  
Before, Akari had almost pitied her for having so little free time, but Natsumi knew what she wanted, and what she would have to do to get it. Everything else, including a social life, took the backseat.  
  
Which was the only explanation Akari had for why her sister didn't actually date anyone.  
  
Setting her shoulder to the swinging door, Akari leaned in until it opened, and then stumbled into the theatre for a few steps before she recovered and limped normally to the front of the auditorium. A few other prospective club members were gathering there, while what looked like the returning upperclassmen had congregated on the stage itself.  
  
Akari, with her crutches, felt a bit out of place, but joined the new students anyway. Sai watched the whole scene with interest. It appeared to be mostly girls in the theatre.  
  
"Okay, people, quiet down!" one of the upperclassmen called out, and the noisy cluster of girls immediately hushed.  
  
Akari sat down expectantly, and watched.  
  
"Welcome to high school, if you're new. If you are returning, welcome home. You should be here for our school's glorious drama club. If you are not here for the drama club, then you should exit, post haste."  
  
The girl who was speaking was quite loud, and use an older dialect that sounded strange coming from a 21st century teenage girl. Akari stifled a giggle.  
  
"My name is Fujita Naomi. You will address me as 'President Naomi' or 'Naomi-sama.'"  
  
"A bit self-important, isn't she, Sai?" Akari mentally asked her resident ghost.  
  
"Quite," Sai agreed. "When do we play go again?"  
  
"After the meeting." Akari promised.  
  
The president of the drama club explained how their main productions generally went. After determining which play to perform, they would hold auditions. She, as the president, would handle casting, and those not cast would be asked to perform technical duties for the play. They would rehearse for six to eight weeks before putting on the performance.  
  
"And," the president said, biting off every syllable with clear precision, "I expect one hundred and ten percent from everyone one of you. If you feel at any time that you are unable to give our glorious club your all, then you may exit the auditorium now."  
  
No one moved, although some of the newer people grinned nervously at one another. They would be free to participate in the club at that level for only two years before the dreaded college entrance exams approached in their senior year.  
  
"Good." The president pulled a list from out of her pocket, and began to read. "We have narrowed our choices down to several excellent literary titles. We will either be performing Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night,' a comedy, the shingeki play by Kinoshita Junji, 'Twilight of a Crane', or an adaptation for stage of Sei Shonagan's 'Pillow Book.'"  
  
"It's nice to know that Sei-san's diary is still appreciated to this day," Sai remarked, sounding happy, as the president rattled on about the three different play options.  
  
"Did you know her?" Akari asked, glancing at him as she struggled to keep up with the club president.  
  
"Oh yes. She was an excellent go player. Quite pretty, too, although a bit too biting in her attitude for my tastes." Sai shrugged. "The women courtiers tended to the snippy side, if only as self-defense. A weak, soft girl could not survive for long in the court against the stronger women."  
  
"Mmm. Just like a weak go player can't survive very long against a strong go player."  
  
"Exactly! That applies to everything in life. Only the strongest survive."  
  
Akari grinned widely, losing track of the president's long-winded lecture. "Have you ever heard of a man named Darwin?"  
  
"I think Hikaru had to deal with him at one point in a science class. Isn't he the one who said that humans came from monkeys? He seems like a very silly man if that's what he thought."  
  
Akari winced. "It's a bit more complex than just that . . ." She was about to launch into a deep explanation of the theory of evolution for the benefit of the ghost, but just then the president put the three plays to a vote.  
  
"Heads down, no peeking."  
  
Akari obediently put her head down, covering her eyes.  
  
"All in favor of the Shakespeare, raise your hand."  
  
Akari hadn't even paid attention! She wasn't sure what the Shakespeare play was about, although she vaguely remembered that all the comedies were quite funny.  
  
"All in favori of the shingeki, raise your hand."  
  
Another one she'd missed. Whoops.  
  
"All in favor of the Pillow Book . . . raise your hand."  
  
At least she knew what that one was about. She raised her hand as high as she could, making sure to keep her other hand firmly over her shut eyes.  
  
"All right! Heads up." The president took a deep breath, smiled brilliantly, for the first time since she'd started talking, and then said, "We're doing the Pillow Book."  
  
There was quiet applause from the theatre, and even a few small cheers. Apparently, it had won by a majority.  
  
"Auditions will be next week! Do not despair if you are not chosen for the role you wish, as every player must perform a part, and no part is unimportant. We also simply must have technical consultants. Costumers, if you will please stay afterward, we must discuss how we're going to handle the Heian robes. Everyone else, please be prepared for cold readings next week."  
  
The president then summarily ignored the rest of the auditorium as a small group of upperclassmen, obviously the costume department, gathered around her.  
  
Akari limped out of the auditorium, feeling a bit better. She was going to have fun!  
  
"NOW do we get to play go?" Sai whined pathetically.  
  
"Fine, fine," Akari said, sneaking through the door quickly behind some of the other new students who were leaving. "We'll go to the go salon that Hikaru always went to."  
  
"YAAAAAY!" Akari would not have been surprised if little hearts had popped out of Sai, he sounded so joyous.

* * *

to:  
from:  
subject: SAI RETURNS  
  
After almost a year of waiting, Sai has returned to Kisedi Go Server! I played a fantastic game with him today. It was definitely Sai and not some faker -- the quality was there, even better than before. I wonder why he disappeared?  
  
He played at 12:14 PM today. Be on the lookout for him the same time tomorrow, I guess.  
  
Hmmm, lunchtime.  
  
Thoughts?  
  
- Waya, 2-dan and climbing fast!

* * *

to:  
from:  
subject: Re: SAI RETURNS  
  
Maybe I can finally get that game that Shindou Hikaru promised me all those years ago.  
  
He was in the KGS Japanese room? I will have to make certain to be online at noon tomorrow . . .  
  
-Ogata

* * *

to:  
from:  
subject: Re: SAI RETURNS  
  
What has Shindou got to do with anything? He was playing a pro game during that time, and took his lunch with everyone else. Touya-san vouched for it. (Not that I asked or anything . . .)  
  
-Waya, 2-dan and climbing fast!

* * *

to:  
from:  
subject: Re: SAI RETURNS  
  
Have you forgotten that Shindou-kun is the only pro in the entire Institute that actually knows who Sai is? /sarcasm  
  
-Ochi

* * *

to:  
from:  
subject: Re: SAI RETURNS  
  
Actually, he claimed on many occasions that he had no idea who Sai was in real life, just that he could arrange games with him somehow. Now, I've played both Shindou and Sai (online), and while their style is similar, they are NOT the same strength. Sai is several classes above him. The game against the Meijin certainly demonstrated that . . .  
  
I want to play Sai again! (excited)  
  
-Nase the Nosy Insei

* * *

to:  
from:  
subject: Re: SAI RETURNS  
  
Nase wrote:  
-- I want to play Sai again! (excited)  
  
Don't we all . . .  
  
-Ochi

* * *

End Chapter 2  
  
Next chapter preview: Akari will enter the amateur go tournament circuit? But how can she prevent Hikaru from finding out? Why is Natsumi so willing to help her?  



End file.
